In a Heterogeneous Network (HetNet), a mix of macro access nodes (ANs), Remote Radio Heads (RRH), and low-power ANs (e.g., picocells, femtocells, and relays) may be leveraged to increase network capacity. For example, macro ANs may consolidate wireless spectrum and/or frequency bands using advanced techniques (e.g., carrier aggregation (CA), multi-antenna techniques (MIMO), coordinated multipoint (CoMP), etc.) to “free-up” wireless spectrum for allocation to low-power ANs deployed within radio range(s) (i.e., minimum usable signal area) of the macro ANs. Under low Signal-to-Interference-Plus Noise ratio (SINR) conditions, where received powers are low due to attenuation, such techniques are not as effective. In addition, aggressive deployment of low-power ANs (e.g., in an ad hoc manner) within a radio range of the macro AN may result in decreased throughput to wireless devices operating at cell edges of the low-power ANs (or macro ANs) due to radio interference from neighboring cells. Radio interference may significantly degrade overall network performance.
Enhanced Inter-Cell Interference Coordination (eICIC) techniques (e.g., subframe alignment using Almost Blank Subframes (ABS), Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM) Symbol Shift, etc.) create opportunities for wireless devices operating at cell edges of low-power ANs and/or macro ANs to receive Downlink (DL) information from the network without interference from neighboring cells. Macro ANs may assign patterns of ABS to low-power ANs and/or coordinate ABS patterns with neighboring ANs to reduce interference at the cell edges of low-power ANs and/or macro ANs.